[stole]

Hi All. Got my new Sol last week, and am lovin' every second of it, despite having to go through battery replacement hell last night. But, a very small price to pay for such an awesome ride. Driving on the back roads of Cape Cod on a spring day..nothing like it.

My question.....i bought the ipod cigarette lighter charger and the 3.5mm audio cable, and all sounds good. But, am I wrong in thinking that every time i leave the car, I have to unplug to cigarette lighter adapter, or else suffer a drained battery?? When i turn the car off and remove the key, the light on the adapter remains on. I don't want to have to worry about remembering to unplug my ipod every time i get out of the car. I searched other threads, but couldn't find an answer.

Thanks for any input!!!
-Stole

 

[2.4solstice06]

Depending on how often you drive the car, I highly doubt your Ipod charger will drain your battery. I used to leave my GPS plugged in and it would be fine, and my battery is original. But if you only drive the car every couple months, it may kill the battery. if you really want to find out how much its drawing, but an ammeter in line with your negative post and cable and see how many amps are drawn and compare it to factory specs.

But long story short... I wouldn't think it would kill your battery

 

[stole]

Thanks, 2.4.

 

[rob the elder]

The cigarette lighter socket stays live with the key off. Depending on how often you drive the car and the charge rates, the battery will be under continuous load.

I finally went to battery tenders on both cars to eliminate problems and extend battery life.

 

[TomatoSoup]

Do an experiment... Leave the charger plugged-in with the LED visible from outside the car. Turn the car off and close the doors (LED will be lit). Come back after 20 minutes and see if the LED is still lit. If not you'll have little to worry about.

Our cars have a feature that they disable power, down to a very low level for the BCM/ECM, after about 15-20 mins. Hopefully this applies to the charger port too (hence the experiment).

 

[chickenwire]

As usual, sage advice from all the members here. Soup's experiment sounds interesting but he's slipping. I thought for SURE he'd bang out a PDF of the wiring diagram showing you how to tie it into the ignition so it switched off with the key!

 

[TomatoSoup]

Soup's experiment sounds interesting but he's slipping. I thought for SURE he'd bang out a PDF of the wiring diagram showing you how to tie it into the ignition so it switched off with the key!